๐ŸŽ‡ ๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฑ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐€๐ˆ ๐ฆ๐š๐ค๐ž๐ฌ ๐š๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ ๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐“๐ข๐ค๐“๐จ๐ค ๐ŸŽ‡
๐ŸŽ‡ ๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฑ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐€๐ˆ ๐ฆ๐š๐ค๐ž๐ฌ ๐š๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ ๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐“๐ข๐ค๐“๐จ๐ค ๐ŸŽ‡

I did not see this coming, and I’m guessing there are a lot of technorati out there whose jaws are on the floor right now wishing they had come up with this idea.

Perplexity AI has reached out to TikTok with an offer to merge, to combine into one of the leading AI and Social Media companies in the world.

It’s brilliant!

In one move Perplexity AI would:

๐Ÿ“ˆ ๐ˆ๐ง๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ž ๐ฏ๐š๐ฅ๐ฎ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง

๐Ÿ‘ซ ๐ˆ๐ง๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ž ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ ๐›๐š๐ฌ๐ž

๐Ÿ“บ ๐€๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ž๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ข๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ

๐Ÿ’ฐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐ง ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐ข๐ง๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ

๐Ÿ†“ ๐‚๐š๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐ฆ๐ž๐๐ข๐š ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง

๐Ÿค– ๐†๐š๐ข๐ง ๐€๐ˆ ๐ฆ๐š๐ซ๐ค๐ž๐ญ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ž

TikTok still has a lot of options on the table, including:

  • Stay a standalone company, despite U.S. legal rulings
  • Sell to Elon Muskโ€™s X/Twitter
  • Sell to billionaire Frank McCourtโ€™s Project Liberty
  • Sell to MrBeast (although weโ€™re pretty sure this was just a joke)
  • Merge with Perplexity AI

Recap

In case you have an actual life IRL, let me catch you up on what youโ€™ve missed (or not missed depending on your perspective).

The last 48 hours have seen a number of ups-and-downs in the TikTok saga. During the day on Saturday there was speculation that an 11th hour deal could be worked out to avert a complete shutdown. On Saturday night around 10 PM EST TikTok and all other ByteDance-owned apps went dark with messages that they were shutting down due to the U.S. ban going into effect. Then Sunday early afternoon TikTok was back online thanking the new incoming Trump administration (not sure how that works, since Donald Trump wonโ€™t even be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America until Monday, January 20). Apparently Donald Trump has reassured TikTok and Shou Zi Chew, who is coincidentally attending the Trump inauguration (Iโ€™m sure thatโ€™s completely unrelated), that he will enact a 90-day extension of the law to give TikTok time to find a buyer of at least 50% of the app – thatโ€™s the new talking points of a possible deal.

Howโ€™d we get here?

The first Trump administration started the legislation to ban TikTok, the congress during the Biden administration voted the ban into law, the U.S. Supreme court upheld the law, and then the Biden administration on Saturday deferred the enforcement of the ban to the incoming Trump administration. So now it is up to Donald Trump to either enforce the TikTok ban he originally started, or explain to the U.S. congress why he isn’t enforcing the law they passed.

It’s interesting, because for the first time in U.S. history there exists a difference between following the written law, respecting the law, and implementing the law.

Where we go from here

Honestly, who knows. Anyone that tells you they can predict what the incoming Trump administration is going to do is full of it. If I had to take a wild guess Iโ€™d predict that TikTok is either bought by or partners with an existing U.S.-based social media network (a la X/Twitter or a MrBeast run startup), and that a certain politician gets a โ€œfinders feeโ€ for brokering all of this. But thatโ€™s just me; Iโ€™m jaded like that.